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CDC confirms 16 cases ATLANTA, Oct 31: A total of 16 people have been confirmed infected with anthrax in the United States, three of whom. ...more Belarus
seen as top MINSK/VILNIUS, Oct 31: Belarus is the largest supplier of weapons to Islamic radicals, according to sources at the..more
"We
are going to WASHINGTON, Oct 31: Secretary of State Colin Powell has acknowledged that the US-led campaign against. .....more Red cross stops seeking funds for Sept 11 aid WASHINGTON, Oct 31: Saying it had received more money than it knew what to do with for now, the American ....more |
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Afghan school holds KABUL, Oct 31: There are no desks, no chairs and no text books at Kabul’s Isteqlal High School. But that is no reason to put off exams. "Due to the security situation because of the bombing,l......more Taliban
influence grows PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN, Oct 31: Elders in Pakistan’s tribal areas bordering Afghanistan say they are losing influence to Muslim clerics as the regions they control become increasingly........more Robots could join fight against terrorism : UN GENEVA, Oct 31: Robots, already used in record numbers in industry across the world, could be employed more widely in the fight against terrorism, a United Nations expert said on Wednesday. ....more US troops in Afghanistan, more could follow WASHINGTON/JABAL-US-SARAJ, AFGHANISTAN, Oct 31: The United States, fearing new terror of an unknown nature and fighting an anthrax outbreak of uncertain origin, held out the prospect of a Gulf war-style invasion to crush the Taliban and........more |
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CDC confirms 16 cases of anthrax, 3 dead ATLANTA, Oct 31: A total of 16 people have been confirmed infected with anthrax in the United States, three of whom have died from the inhaled form of the bacterial infection. The Federal Centers for Disease Control and prevention has confirmed the following cases as of late yesterday: Florida - Bob Stevens, 63, Photo Editor at American Media Inc, inhalation anthrax, deceased. - Ernesto Blanco, 73, mailroom employee at AMI, inhalation anthrax New York - Female, 61, hospital worker, inhalation anthrax - Erin O’Connor, 38, assistant to NBC Television News Anchor Tom Brokaw, skin anthrax - Infant son of ABC TV Producer, skin anthrax - Female, 27, CBS employee who works with TV news anchor Dan Rather, skin anthrax New Jersey - Female, 56, postal worker in Hamilton township, inhalation anthrax - Female, also postal worker in Hamilton township, inhalation case - Female, postal worker in west trenton, skin anthrax - Male, 35, postal worker in Hamilton township facility, skin anthrax - Female, 51, not a postal worker, skin anthrax Washington area - Thomas Morris Jr. 55, brentwood postal facility worker, inhalation anthrax, deceased - Joseph Curseen, 47, brentwood postal facility worker, inhalation anthrax, deceased - Male, brentwood worker, inhalation anthrax - Male, brentwood worker, inhalation anthrax - Male, 59, State Department mailroom worker at Sterling, Virginia facility, inhalation anthrax. Previous, higher estimates of confirmed cases, compiled from numerous sources, have included two New York post employees and a second employee at NBC in New York. The CDC said yesterday it considers these three to be among the suspected cases. Two men who worked at a postal facility in Washington and a supermarket tabloid photo editor in Florida have died from inhaled anthrax, the more lethal form. As of yesterday, the number of confirmed US cases included four in New York, five in the Washington area, two in Florida and five in New Jersey. Traces of anthrax also have been found at a White House mail facility outside the nation’s capital, in congressional buildings on capitol hill, where 28 senate staff members tested positive for anthrax exposure, as well as at other Government buildings. Inhaling anthrax is usually fatal if not treated quickly with antibiotics. Initial flu-like symptoms are typically followed after a few days by breathing difficulties and shock. Skin anthrax is less severe, with those infected generally responding well to antibiotics. The third form, gastrointestinal anthrax, which can be contracted by eating contaminated meat, has not emerged. Anthrax is not contagious. Following are outlines of the main US cases. — Boca Raton, Florida Bob Stevens, a photo editor at tabloid newspaper publisher American Media Inc., died on Oct. 5 of inhaled anthrax infection. A mailroom employee at AMI, diagnosed as having an inhaled anthrax infection, was released after recovering in a Miami Hospital. Spores were found on a computer keyboard and in the mailroom of the AMI building, and also at Boca Raton’s main post office. — Washington Thomas Morris Jr. and Joseph Curseen, who worked at the brentwood postal facility in Washington, died from inhalation anthrax. Morris died on Oct. 21 and Curseen on Oct. 22 Two others who worked at the facility are being treated for the inhaled form of the disease. The brentwood facility handled letters to the capitol, including an anthrax-laced letter that was sent to senate majority leader Tom Daschle’s office from Trenton, New Jersey. Twenty staffers from Daschle’s office were among those testing positive for exposure without contracting the disease. The House of Representatives shut down briefly because of the anthrax scare and some congressional offices also closed. A State Department mailroom worker at a mail facility in sterling, Virginia, also contracted inhaled anthrax. (REUTERS) |
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Belarus seen as top supplier of arms to Moslem extremists MINSK/VILNIUS, Oct 31: Belarus is the largest supplier of weapons to Islamic radicals, according to sources at the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Israeli Intelligence Journal Debka. In the first half of 2001 alone, Belarus signed weapons deals with Arab, Palestinian, and Albanian Moslem extremists for more than 500 million dollars, the sources say. It seems the last dictatorship in Europe is playing a key role in supplying Islamic radicals and terrorists in Central Asia, the Middle East and the Balkans with weapons and military equipment. As a former Soviet Republic that inherited huge amounts of military equipment when the Soviet Union collapsed and has expanded and upgraded its existing weapons producing facilities, Belarus is well-placed to maintain its yearly rank as a top ten weapons exporting country to the third world. Belarus, with a population of only ten million people, has 1,700 T-72 tanks, intelligence documents obtained by Deutsche Presse-Agentur DPA reveal. Poland, which shares a border with Belarus and is a new member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization NATO, has four times the population but just half that number of tanks. "Belarus is one of the most secretive countries in its weapons deals and probably one of the most irresponsible countries you can think of", Siemon Wezemen describes the situation. Wezemen is an expert on arms exports and weapons proliferation at the Sipri Institute in Stockholm, a highly respected scientific foundation devoted to peace research. The fact that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has led his country into international isolation and has been condemned and ostracised by the west for his undemocratic and authoritarian behaviour has provided another impetus for him to sell weapons to countries and organisations that are unfriendly to the United States and western Europe. As official information from minsk on arms exports is shrouded in secrecy, western observers must base their assessments on intelligence documents, information obtained from intelligence analysts and diplomats as well as east european military and political journals with sources close to the Belarusian arms trade. The influential polish political news journal Wprost, for example, reports that as far back as 1994, in Lukashenko’s first year as President, Belarus supplied Tajikistan with machine guns and armoured vehicles - equipment which quickly found its way into the hands of Islamic fighters engaged in civil war in neighbouring Afghanistan. Wprost also reports that Belarus, in violation of UN Security Council resolutions, has helped the Iraqi Air Force with modernising its anti-aircraft systems by supplying military hardware such as such as SA-3 missile components along with highly technical equipment used to modernize Iraq’s air defence network. While Lukashenko has strongly denied the allegations that he has supplied weaponry to Iraq, Wezeman notes: "I would not be surprised if Belarus was giving technical assistance". The efforts of Lukashenko to earn much needed hard currency for Belarus’s anaemic economy - one of the poorest in Europe - appear to have no limits as the country indiscriminately sells weapons to anyone willing to pay - especially Islamic militants who cannot procure weapons through legal and ordinary channels. As sources at the US Central Intelligence Agency suggest and the Israeli intelligence journal Debka reported, Belarus has supplied Moslem Albanian rebels fighting in Kosovo and Macedonia with machine guns, mortars, anti-tank mines and large quantities of ammunition. These rebels have made good use of this equipment in their fight against Serbia and Macedonia - two Slavic countries who are key Russian allies in the Balkans. In such a light it seems ironic that as Russia’s most ardent public supporter in its military campaign with Islamic freedom fighters in Chechnya, Lukashenko is such a crucial supplier of lethal military equipment for the Islamic world. As combatting fundamental Islamic terrorism appears to be the lynchpin of Russia’s new relationship with the west, some European observers hope that Moscow will use its overwhelming political and economic leverage on Lukashenko to put an end to Belarusian military sales with the Islamic world. (DPA) |
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"We are going to prevail": Powell WASHINGTON, Oct 31: Secretary of State Colin Powell has acknowledged that the US-led campaign against terrorism had hit a perceived "flat spot" but urged Americans and others to be patient and predicted the eventual success of military operations against Afghanistan. "I have been through this cycle in almost every crisis I have gone through, there is always a flat spot, where everyone says "why isn’t it over yet?" and then you have to remind them it’s over when it’s over," Powell yesterday said in an interview with AFP. "But the key is we are going to be patient, we are going to pursue it and we are going to prevail," he said, insisting that the now three-week-old military portion of the conflict had accomplished "quite a bit." "With respect to Afghanistan, there were people, I guess, who expected that all you had to do is snap your finger and you’ve finished your mission in one day," he said. "Do not expect an immediate outcome, it will take time." Powell, speaking in a conference room outside his State Department office, also said he had full confidence that the coalition, Washington has assembled to fight the global war against terrorism, would survive "anxieties" from some countries over the current focus on Afghanistan. "It will stay together because it is a coalition not just for the war in Afghanistan but the campaign against terrorism, I think that is the glue that will hold us together," he said. "It’s a campaign that everybody knew they were signing up to and remains signed up to," Powell said, referring to the wide array of allies who have enlisted in the fight aimed now at Osama Bin Taden, his Al-Qaeda a network and their hosts, Afghanistan’s Taliban militia. "I think considerable damage ... Has been done to Al-Qaeda camps that will no longer be useful, to the Taliban military structure," he said, noting US strikes on airfields, airplanes, air defence systems and command and control centres. (AFP) |
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Red cross stops seeking funds for Sept 11 aid WASHINGTON, Oct 31: Saying it had received more money than it knew what to do with for now, the American Red Cross will stop seeking donations for its September 11 relief fund as of Wednesday and that the 547 million dollars pledged so far was enough to meet attack victims’ needs for at least a year. Officials of the charity said yesterday that about 300 million has been spent or earmarked already for people directly affected by the hijack attacks that killed some 5,000 people. The rest will be kept on hand to further help sept. 11 victims or to provide relief after any future terrorist incidents, officials said. "We believe at this time there are sufficient monies in that fund," Harold Decker, the organization’s newly named Interim Chief Executive, told reporters. Decker said the Red Cross had made significant progress in distributing funds and was working to get aid checks to people within 48 hours of receiving their requests. The Red Cross also has aided families of three people who died from anthrax sent through the mail. Decker took over as Chief Executive for Bernadine Healy, who said Friday she was forced out of the organization after clashing with the board over the relief fund, known as the liberty fund, and other matters. She will stay on through year-end as President. The American Red Cross, one of the world’s largest charities, and healy drew criticism for the fund’s handling, with some questioning how the money would be spent and whether too much had been raised. Given US officials’ warnings about possible future attacks on Americans, the Red Cross felt it was wise and appropriate to keep some money available to respond to any other attacks, Decker said. "We are going to try and be good stewards of the money ... Distributing it appropriately and making sure it goes to the right place," Decker said. The American Red Cross has given disaster aid such as food and emotional support to families and rescue workers and also provides cash to cover financial expenses of families of people killed in the September 11 attacks. Chief Financial Officer Jack Campbell said he thought the 300 million was sufficient to cover victims’ needs for at least a year. The Red Cross also works to maintain adequate blood reserves and provides communication and support services for military families. After Wednesday, people can still donate to the liberty fund, but the Red Cross will stop airing television advertisements or otherwise soliciting donations for it. The organization plans new public service announcements featuring people helped by the liberty fund donations. Asked whether the Red Cross’ reputation had been hurt by controversy surrounding the fund and healy’s departure, Decker said he thought the public understood that the organization was doing its best to deal with an unprecedented disaster. "We’re struggling to find the right way to provide assistance to the American people. It can’t be perfect. It’s fair to say we are learning," he said. Decker, an attorney, joined the American Red Cross in may as corporate secretary and was named General Counsel last month. Prior to that, he worked for 21 years at drug maker Pharmacia Corp. He said the Red Cross Board was searching for a permanent Chief Executive and President. (REUTERS) |
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Afghan school holds exams despite bombs KABUL, Oct 31: There are no desks, no chairs and no text books at Kabul’s Isteqlal High School. But that is no reason to put off exams. "Due to the security situation because of the bombing, this year we are holding exams early," said Abdul Rahim, a teacher at the French-built School. It has no windows and barely any doors but the teachers and male-only students still turn up. The school, like other institutions in the war-battered capital, is struggling to function. Government offices are open but working only partially. The bazaars are bustling between the air strikes against the Taliban, who have enforced across Afghanistan their fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic law. But the Taliban, who took Kabul in 1996 after years of civil war, have not collapsed under the bombardment, now in its fourth week. Residents who may not have been full-blooded Taliban supporters say they are growing frustrated with the US strikes. Several stray bombs have hit houses killing civilians including children, witnesses say. "You don’t feel safe from the bombings day or night as bombs have been falling on civilian people," said one teacher who did not want to be identified. But the United States has said its action to flush out Saudi-born Osama Bin Laden, suspected mastermind of attacks on New York and Washington, will take a long time. "We get more frightened when we hear that the operation will go on indefinitely," the teacher said. "All of the students and teachers here are struggling with their life and death. But because of their sense of patriotism without siding with the Taliban Government, the teachers come with some sort of spirit and responsibility to teach," he added. "We want a speedy solution to this war," he said. The students at Isteqlal, once one of Kabul’s top schools, appreciate their teachers’ efforts. "Teachers have not received their salaries, but are teaching us on empty stomachs," said Ahmad Shoaib. "We have no bench or desk. Our house is near the airport and bombs fall there at night and our school is near the presidential palace. We are afraid during the day that our school might be destroyed," he added. Even before the US bombing, the school had been struggling. Afghanistan lost most of its educational elite during the soviet occupation of the 1980s. More fled in the fighting between afghan warlords that followed the soviet withdrawal. When the Taliban suddenly swept through the country five years ago, they stamped a fundamentalist form of Islam on education, excluding girls from schools. Islamic studies figure large in the Isteqlal curriculum but the school’s 20 or so teachers try to teach maths, science and other mainstream subjects too. Nevertheless, the children learn in fear. "We are afraid of America’s bombardment," said Ahmad Basir. "The bombing and the invasion must stop." (REUTERS) |
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Taliban influence grows in Pak tribal areas PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN, Oct 31: Elders in Pakistan’s tribal areas bordering Afghanistan say they are losing influence to Muslim clerics as the regions they control become increasingly "Talibanised". The rise in the brand of Islam espoused by Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers has triggered an unprecedented debate about whether the Government in Islamabad should take more control of the semi-autonomous tribal areas. The border between Pakistan and Afghanistan has long been nothing but a line on a map for millions of people who live on both sides of the frontier, but even some tribal elders think it might be time to review the situation. "In the last few years, the respect of the elders is being reduced by the religious people," says elder Haji Sadiq Mohammad, from Khar in the Bajaur agency, north of the Pakistani border city of Peshawar. "Before it used to be that the elders would tell the ulema (clerics) what to say and how to operate. Now it is becoming the other way around." Mohammad dates the transformation to the rise of the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan. Capitalising on weariness with infighting among the Mujahideen leaders who liberated Afghanistan from the decade-long Soviet occupation that ended in 1990, the Taliban seized power in 1996 and have since remained firmly entrenched. The Taliban emerged from Pakistan, where thousands of exiled Afghans attended religious schools in which a hardline Islamic ideology was drilled into them by firebrand clerics who had little else to offer a generation of young men. A Peshawar-based tribal press agency said on Tuesday the ban on public music would apply to the whole of Bajaur agency and would also include a ban on the public playing of videos in tea houses and restaurants. A spokeswoman for a charity that raises funds for girls’ education in tribal areas says contributions have plummeted over the past few years — a fall that began with the Taliban banning education for women in Afghanistan. "We used to raise many lakh (hundreds of thousands) rupees for our schools, but these days we cannot," adds Fatma Ghazour of learning. "I believe other charities are okay, but we are suffering." Mohammad says many people agree with the change in attitude, but — perhaps surprisingly — the older generation are against it. "Many people think it is a good one, but many more do not. Do not be surprised to know that the older people, the respected people do not agree," he says. Although the men say they feel attitudes might change if the US-campaign does lead to the decline of the Taliban, they want to take no chances. "We would like the (national) Government to take an action," says Mohammad. "They must give laws to make (sure) the elders have the power to decide how we are operating. They can even put some people here to look and see what we are doing, advising us." (REUTERS) |
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Robots could join fight against terrorism : UN GENEVA, Oct 31: Robots, already used in record numbers in industry across the world, could be employed more widely in the fight against terrorism, a United Nations expert said on Wednesday. Mobile bomb-fighting robots can already inspect suspicious cars, buildings or mail for explosives or hazardous materials, according to Jan Karlsson, an expert at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE). But the airliner hijacking attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and Pentagon near Washington on September 11, which killed more than 4,800 people, along with anthrax cases among postal workers, exposed security gaps which robots could fill. "It is quite clear that it would have been an expanding area even without September 11. Everything to do with inspection, surveillance and handling substances in environments hostile for human beings is expanding, not just for anti-terrorism but for maintenance purposes," Karlsson told Reuters. The Geneva-based ECE, in its annual study of the industry issued today, "World Robotics 2001", said a record 100,000 robots were installed last year, up 25 percent on 1999. At least 750,000 robot units now work worldwide in sectors ranging from the car industry to farming and health care. "There is definitely a much higher incentive to invest in automated technology to fight terrorists," the Swede added. "It could be used in post offices, in surveillance of offices after hours and to inspect suspicious cars." The US postal service — whose postmaster told a senate panel on Tuesday that the financial impact of the anthrax crisis could be "several billion dollars" — uses robots to sort parcels but other automated equipment sorts letters, according to Karlsson. Karlsson told a news briefing: "Robots are getting cheaper and cheaper and better and better. At the same time, labour costs are more and more." "For industrial robots, 2000 was the best year ever," he added. "not only in Japan and Europe and North America, but they have also started to take off in some developing countries, for example in Brazil, Mexico, China and South Africa." Annual sales of robot units are estimated at 5 to 6 billion, according to the ECE expert. But with the cost of installing necessary software and integration systems, the total robotics market could be worth closer to 25 billion, he said. Some 50 systems of fire-fighting and bomb-disposal robots have been sold through 2000 in countries including Israel and Britain, according to Karlsson. The study, written before the devastating US attacks, predicts sales of 120 systems by 2004. Some 2,300 robots work in demolition, servicing or dismantling nuclear, chemical, waste or other hazardous complexes, it said. Another 60 robots work in surveillance. "Guard robots are used privately and professionally to detect intruders or fire," Karlsson said. "The Pentagon have several and they are used in nuclear plants in the United States and Europe, but the market is still rather marginal," he said. (REUTERS) |
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US troops in Afghanistan, more could follow WASHINGTON/JABAL-US-SARAJ, AFGHANISTAN, Oct 31: The United States, fearing new terror of an unknown nature and fighting an anthrax outbreak of uncertain origin, held out the prospect of a Gulf war-style invasion to crush the Taliban and their Al Qaeda allies in Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday "a very modest number" of US troops were already on the ground in Afghanistan, based in the region controlled by the Northern Alliance of local groups which are fighting the ruling Taliban. Nearly 100 US warplanes, conducting an air war now in its fourth week, pounded Taliban and Al Qaeda targets in a campaign sparked by the Sept. 11 suicide-hijack attacks that killed about 4,800 people in New York, Washington and rural Pennsylvania. Two waves of US jets raided the southern Afghan city of Kandahar — the stronghold of Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar — early today local time, dropping at least one bomb, a Reuters reporter said. It was impossible to determine the location of the strike or any damage or casualties because the city, like other Afghan towns, is under curfew. Another American — the 16th this month — was confirmed to have contracted potentially fatal anthrax in an outbreak that has killed three people so far but has investigators guessing as to who is behind it. Adding to the nation’s worried uncertainty, Attorney General John Ashcroft issued an alert on Monday night that more terror attacks may be carried out in the next week against US targets at home or overseas. But officials had no information on what might be targeted or where, although they said the threat probably emanated from Al Qaeda and its leader Osama Bin Laden, who are blamed for the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon last month. Rumsfeld, in the Pentagon’s first acknowledgment that US troops are based in rugged Afghanistan, told reporters the units were liaising with the Afghan opposition and spotting targets for warplanes. He said the US presence was limited, but added: "It is true we do not have anything like the ground forces we had in world war two, or in Korea, or in the Gulf war, but nor have we ruled that out." The only previous ground mission in the campaign publicly disclosed by the Pentagon was a hit-and-run raid by more than 100 paratroopers led by elite Army rangers 11 days ago. In Afghanistan, opposition spokesman Mohammad Ashraf Nadeem told Reuters up to 20 US soldiers were in opposition areas. "Following the launch of the allied operation (on Oct. 7), between 15 to 20 Americans came ... To coordinate attacks against the Taliban," Nadeem said. "They have their own base there and are equipped with guns and other means of defense and wear uniforms." The front is near the northwest city of Mazar-i-Sharif, a prize that stands astride supply routes to Kabul and has an airfield. The opposition, a loose-knit coalition of warlords from ethnic minorities in Northern Afghanistan, has repeatedly tried to take the city from the mainly Pashtun Taliban. In the latest case of anthrax, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said a critically ill manhattan hospital worker had been infected with the deadliest form — inhalation anthrax — adding to fears that the germ warfare agent was spreading more widely through the mail. Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge expressed concern and said health and law enforcement authorities were retracing her steps. "Clearly, she was not a postal employee. How she became contaminated, how she became infected is something that we need to try to find out," Ridge told a news briefing. Ridge, referring to the terrorism alert issued by Ashcroft — the second such alert following one on Oct. 11 - said he was aware of the dangers of crying wolf. "There really wasn’t any more to divulge," he said. "Continue to live your lives, continue to be America, but be aware, be alert, be on guard." Echoing the theme, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said that "as threats are received, as security is beefed up, it similarly is important for (Americans) to go about their normal life... No one has ever been able to make the American people cower and not live the american life". President George W Bush led by example yesterday, visiting New York to watch the baseball world series at Yankee Stadium. Bush, wearing a fire department of New York windbreaker, threw out the first pitch. Security for Bush’s visit was tight. Law enforcement sources said almost 2,000 police officers on foot, horseback and motorcycles were on duty in and around the bronx ballpark, snipers were stationed on nearby rooftops and bomb-sniffing dogs were used. Fans were checked as they entered. Neither blimps nor news helicopters were allowed to fly over during the game. The Federal aviation administration temporarily restricted flights by small planes over US nuclear power plants after the warning of possible new terror attacks. The air war against the Taliban has had little apparent success in weakening the movement so far, but Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf said he detected splits that could open the way for a political end to the conflict. "I do see that Afghanistan has suffered, the people are suffering so much that I am reasonably sure there are many people who even question the wisdom of their suffering for the sake of somebody who is there and not an afghan, like Osama Bin Laden and his people," Musharraf told Reuters in an interview. Pakistan supported the Taliban Government until the Sept. 11 attacks. It has long had an intelligence network among Afghans. "No, it’s not wishful thinking," Musharraf said when pressed about the prospect of desertions in the dominant Pashtun tribe that has supported the Taliban so far. But he declined to go into details about who he expects to desert. Musharraf said he accepted that the military campaign had to continue in Afghanistan and he would not press Bush at their scheduled meeting next month to halt bombing during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan that begins about Nov. 17. A poll by the New York Times and CBS news showed the public may be losing confidence in the stated aims of Bush’s war on terrorism. However, support for Bush’s job performance remained near its high, at 87 per cent. The poll, taken before the new warning on Monday night, showed growing public doubts that the United States would capture or kill Bin Laden or protect citizens from further attacks, like anthrax. Bush has said he would "not be surprised" if Al Qaeda was behind the disease outbreak, but unnamed FBI and CIA officials have been quoted as saying the source could be local. (REUTERS) |
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